


I Am Iron Woman

by daphnie_1



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Female Tony Stark, One Shot, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-10
Updated: 2012-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-29 08:06:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/317642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daphnie_1/pseuds/daphnie_1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i> The room hangs on her every word, she can barely think, and she's half drunk anyway, so she thinks: fuck it. </i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>"I am Iron Woman."</i>
</p>
<p>A retelling of Iron Man Two through the eyes of Natasha Stark with a surprise meeting at the end with a certain Super Soldier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Am Iron Woman

**Author's Note:**

> Written as part of my 'bingo card' for the cap_ironman com over on dreamwidth. The prompt was gender change.
> 
> The primary pairing towards the end is Natasha/Steve but there is also reference to Natasha/Rhodey and Natsha Stark/Natasha Romanoff (if very one sided on Stark's side.)
> 
> Additional warnings: Has one instance (recalled) of one character getting rather handsy with another one but it is not in an overtly sexual fashion. Instances of sexism. The fic also references Tony's alcohol issues as they are presented in Iron Man 2.

She looks up from the prepared cards and sees the press, sees the cameras, sees Pepper, and sees all of the attention focuses intensely on her at the podium. The sheer fucking faith in Pepper's eyes is scary as hell.

The room hangs on her every word, she can barely think, and she's half drunk anyway, so she thinks: fuck it.

"I am Iron Woman."

The room goes wild but the look on Coulson's face is so worth it.

* * *

She's in court and the idiots want her stuff, and hey, guess what? No. They can't have it. Because she built it, she runs it, and it's hers. They can't have her and her tech is her, even if they don't seem to get that.

"I am Iron Woman," she tells them in case, you know, they missed that. Some of them seem to have, so yeah. "The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Woman suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what state you're in."

She pauses here and gives a grin to the room, and the millions of people watching her on the internet, before turning back to the senator, "You can't have it because you can't afford me." She gives the senator a little wink just to nail home what a complete asshole he is.

The press are gonna have a fucking field day. They always do.

On the way home, JARVIS congratulates her on being in a Youtube video with her clothes on.

* * *

The press _do_ have a fucking field day and it's all over the news. About how she's unstable, about how she drinks, about how some idiot armchair psychologist thinks she has PTSD and how the last person in the country who should be left unsupervised with national security is her.

Some think she should hand Iron Woman over to the military. Some think she shouldn't. Some think she should be under military control - she's totally soldier material, sure - and some don't. Some even think she should be put on freaking trial.

They all share one thing though: they all have an opinion about Natasha Stark. Well, she shouldn't be surprised, you know what they say, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.

Pepper tries to hide the papers from her, change the channel when she walks in, but Pepper doesn't win, because Pepper never wins, even when she does recruit Jarvis. The look on Pepper's face when Natasha finds out what's going on is almost enough to convince Natasha to tell her that she's kinda, sorta, maybe, probably, okay, _fine_ , actually dying.

But it is an almost, and instead she settles for telling Pepper that contrary to popular opinion she knows what the fuck she's doing.

Mostly.

 

* * *

Pepper's talking to her, and yeah, she really should be listening because this is serious business company stuff, but the redhead from legal or wherever, is hot. Like, seriously hot. So Natasha has a thing for redheads - sue her. Which Pepper is convinced is gonna happen if she keeps this up anyway so she might as well enjoy it.

"I want one," she tells Pepper, because, well, she does.

There's a beat.

"No."

* * *

What the hell, she asks herself, is the point in owning a race car if you never get to drive it. Seriously, she owns a ton of stuff she never gets to play with. They are her things after all.

She's in the women's bathroom fixing her makeup in the mirror. She fucking hates that she has to wear this crap but Pepper insists on it for official functions. Natasha can still feel Hammer's nasty little hands all over her. Hammer had been smiling at the reporter and giving it all this shit about how they're really close, and yeah, he's a creep.

She'd given him her best smile and said, "When Hammer Industries beats Stark Industries in stock holdings, then we can talk. And, if you'll excuse me, I think that bar has my name on it."

She pulls a face. The reporter had totally thought her and Hammer were screwing. People are gonna think she slept with him, which would be fine, if, you know, she actually had. But she does have certain standards despite what the press will tell you.

Fuck, this whole thing had just been a mess, and Pepper is going to be seriously pissed, and there is nothing worse than a pissed off Pepper Potts. Okay, there might actually be. A pissed off Pepper Potts who is CEO might be worse.

Natasha wonders if she really thought this through.

She takes a swig of her drink and eyes herself up in the mirror again.

"Got any other bad ideas?" she asks herself.

Turns out that she does.

* * *

Vanko smells of cheap vodka and it stings the back of her throat. Yeah, she's a drinker, but never the cheap shit. That stuff is bad for you.

He gives her this look, like she hasn't seen that one before, and starts spouting off in Russian at her. He calls her _Dorogaya_ , dear, and tells her that this is no place for a women despite what her family did to his.

"You were happy enough taking shots at me in the suit," she reminds him and sits down the opposite end of the bench, and looks over the top of her sunglasses at him.

He points at her, the arc reactor, and gives her this smile. "Looks like I don't have to. Palladium in the chest, painful way to die."

She can feel it creeping up her side, burning her from the inside out, but what the fuck is she supposed to do, huh? It's not like she hasn't tried everything going. She's good at this stuff, she knows.

"Yeah, you got that right," and she pauses. "But what you didn't get right are those whips. Seriously, dude, those things are shit. Try double cycling next time, okay?"

* * *

"You think you're a big guy, huh? Take your best shot." She yells at him, barely able to keep her hand steady because she's fucking shaking because of the drink, but you can bet she's a better shot than he is. It also doesn’t help that she's shaking with goddamn laughter under the suit, because this is insane, but Rhodey can't see her.

Rhodey has his repulsor raised as well and she doesn’t need to see his face to know he's disappointed in her. Yeah, well, he can just join the club, because he should have known better. “Tony, please. This isn't right. Just stop.”

He's the only one that ever calls her that and it's usually when he's feeling fond, or after they've just had sex, and it's nearly enough to stop her. It's an old MIT joke and she can remember when he came up with it and how much they'd both laughed because her marks probably would have been better if she'd just changed her name, or you know, been a guy and he understood that. He also understood why neither of them graduated top of the class even though they could both run rings around the guy who did. But it's not quite enough, because she knows what she's doing. “I thought you wanted to be War Machine? Well, this is your chance.”

* * *

"I already told you," she says, looking at Nick Fury over the top of her sunglasses even though the electric lights are hurting her goddamn eyes, "I don't want to be in your super-secret boy-band. I'm not gonna play token female in your little group."

* * *

"Natasha! Would you go find your mother?"

Natasha's focus snaps back to the tape. She can see herself peeking over the edge of the table, studying the Stark Expo model, but not quite tall enough to reach even though she clearly wants to. The tape cuts out for a second and her father is back, facing the screen. She's gone, probably with her mother.

"In the future, SHIELD will have technology beyond everything I can even imagine." Her father says in the tone of someone who is clearly a fanatic. Or a prophet. Or both. Her father's voice is speaking from the tape of the stuff she'd been given but he isn't talking to her, which, you know, is good because that would be weird. Not so bad if they'd ever talked when he was alive, but talking when he's dead? That's a no.

"Everything you need is here," he assured whoever listening in that same half-whispered fanatical tone.

She ends up reverse engineering a new power source from some metal shield she finds in the bottom of one of the boxes. Turns out her father isn't wrong about everything, who'd have figured.

* * *

Nick Fury phones her up after the whole thing with Ivan is done, after everything, and says 11 words, "Let me introduce you to the man who saved your life."

She considers this for a second. "Sure, why not."

He's sitting behind a table in SHIELD headquarters and she recognizes him before anyone even has to say anything. She looks over at Fury and quirks an eyebrow. "Is that Steve Rogers? As in, the Steve Rogers? As in Captain America: Worlds First Boyscout?"

Nick Fury nods. "I'll get you the mission file."

She knows why she hasn't already been told. Because of her file, because Romanov had said she was unstable, or narcissistic, or whatever. They must need something from her. Natasha tilts her head and considers this, considers all the implications, considers everything, and this is huge. Bigger than huge. "Shit,” and she looks over at Steve, “Also? He's hot."

Fury frowns at her. "As a SHIELD agent I specifically forbid you from corrupting a national icon. He's traumatised enough without you infecting him with anything.”

Since when was she a SHIELD agent? Last she'd checked she was a consultant. Kinda a huge difference there and she's not sure she's happy about that promotion. Natasha takes a few steps forward and grins at Fury. "You aren't the boss of me. I'm not a SHIELD agent remember? I do what I like." She takes a few more steps before throwing him a wink, “Also? No need to be jealous. You can come and see me any time.”

Captain America is studiously pretending that he totally can't hear their conversation by humming quietly to himself. Cute.

She saunters over and gives him a grin and he's up on his feet before she can even sit down. She looks him up and down and rolls her eyes, because can you believe this guy? Seriously. Even if the uniform is cute. “Let's get this straight, all right? You did not save my life.” And she holds out her hand, “Natasha Stark.”


End file.
